Footnotes: The New SEC Chair; The 401(k) Waste; The Real Middle Class | 11.26.12

House Committee Sends 1099 Repeal to the Floor [JofA]
The House Ways and Means Committee approved a bill Thursday that would repeal the expanded Form 1099 reporting requirements, voting 21–15 to send the measure to the full House of Representatives. The bill, called the Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011 (HR 705), would repeal both the expanded information reporting requirements enacted as part of last year’s health reform legislation and the requirement that taxpayers who receive income from rental property issue 1099s to service providers. To pay for this repeal, the bill would increase the amount of the neware credit that is subject to recapture.

Kabul rebukes outsiders over bank crisis role [FT]
A dispute over how to tackle Afghanistan’s biggest banking scandal has added a new strain to ties between the government of Hamid Karzai, the president, and the west. After a visit by Neal Wolin, the US deputy Treasury secretary, the finance ministry said that weak international support had exacerbated the crisis.“ Afghan and US officials agreed that (the crisis) … was compounded by the erroneous audit by PricewaterhouseCoopers, and ineffective international technical assistance and supervision,” the ministry said.

Year after plane hit, repairs continue at Echelon I [AAS]
Echelon I has been closed since the crash, but city officials later said an engineer’s inspection determined the building was structurally sound. Currently, plans are being designed for the remaining work, Kimball said. Those are mostly complete, and work will commence after city approval. Kimball said that the next step will be finding new tenants; none of the building’s former occupants are returning.

Millions at stake in IRS audit of Oakland medical marijuana dispensary [Sacramento Bee]
Harborside Health Center proclaims itself the world’s largest marijuana dispensary. For certain, it is California’s most ambitious – a holistic care center with a naturopathic physician, acupuncturist, chiropractor, yoga instructors and therapists in “universal life force energy.” Its Oakland facility handles $22 million in annual medical marijuana transactions. Now Harborside is attracting scrutiny from the Internal Revenue Service. Since last year, the IRS has been auditing 2008 and 2009 federal tax returns for the Oakland location, one of two outlets Harborside operates for 70,000 medical marijuana users.

Bubba’s bro Roger Clinton bungles tax bills [Tax Watchdog]
Robert Snell’s tax delinquent du jour: “Roger Clinton, the bumbling half-brother of former President Bill Clinton, owes more than $90,000 in delinquent state and federal taxes, according to public records.”

The Financial Accounting Foundation Reappoints Thomas J. Linsmeier To a Second Term on the FASB [Business Wire]
The Financial Accounting Foundation (FAF) today announced that Thomas J. Linsmeier has been appointed to a second five-year term as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) beginning July 1, 2011. The reappointment was made by the FAF Board of Trustees, which oversees the activities of the FASB and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

I do yoga with my bosses [NYP]
Getting yoga stoned with the boss.

Stanford Sues U.S. Prosecutors, SEC and FBI Agents [Bloomberg]
R. Allen Stanford, the indicted financier, sued U.S. prosecutors and agents of the FBI and Securities and Exchange Commission, accusing them of “abusive law enforcement” and seeking $7.2 billion in damages.